An MBA Will Make You Richer And Happier

The original TransparentMBA team. Pictured from left to right are Jeremy Selbst, Mitch Kirby, Alyssa Jaffee and Kevin Marvinac. Courtesy photo

Perhaps most surprising about the data is how unhappy MBAs reported being before going to school — and how happy they were afterwards. On a 1-to-10 scale, MBAs reported a happiness level of 4.94 before entering B-school.

Afterwards, the average jumps to 7.81 — or, a 58% growth in overall job happiness. Marvinac points to the industry and function switching data as one reason for the big increase in satisfaction. According to the TransparentMBA data pull, 89% of MBAs switch either industry or function after graduating. Some 69% switch both industry and function. As expected, the data suggests that people are increasingly using the MBA to make significant career changes.

MBAS WORK A MEDIAN TEN HOURS MORE A WEEK THAN BEFORE B-SCHOOL

In addition to the compensation, function, and industry stats, TransparentMBA asked MBAs that register on the site to report on job impact, company culture, if they’d recommend the company to a friend, and overall happiness. Marvinac says overall happiness is the “overarching umbrella” to the three other measurements. According to Marvinac, the average happiness for all users of the site — including current MBAs — is 6.6.

But all of that extra cash and happiness comes with at least one caveat. Marvinac and TransparentMBA looked at differences in how many hours a week MBAs work compared to before business school. Not surprisingly, on average, MBAs work more after B-school than before, averaging 57.7 hours a week, compared to the 52.8 hours weekly they claimed prior to getting their MBA degrees. MBAs worked a median 10 hours more a week after business school–60 hours weekly versus 50. Particularly interesting, Marvinac notes, is the difference in percentage increases between mean and average numbers. For the average, the percentage increase is almost 15%, compared to the 7.7% median uptick. “It’s reiterating that not all MBA jobs are created equal,” Marvinac says.

When the average increase is a lot is more than the median, Marvinac explains, it’s because the data is top heavy, or there are some amazingly high amounts of hours being clocked by some MBA grads. One MBA, for example, claimed to be working a whopping 110 hours in his post-MBA job. Many report working in the 70 to 80 hour per week range, and a few actually reported working less hours per week.

This data was provided by TransparentMBA, a free online resource that provides the most granular compensation, satisfaction, and work-life balance data for MBA careers. Use over 250,000 data points from 3,000+ employers and 200+ MBA programs to plan your careers, evaluate specific roles, and even negotiate your offers.

DON’T MISS: HIGHEST & LOWEST PAID MBAs OF 2015 or HOW MUCH IS YOUR MBA WORTH? TRACKING PAY BY SCHOOL & FUNCTION